Hello, class. My name is B.F. Skinner. I was born on March 20, 1904 in a small railroad town in Pennsylvania. I had a small family, consisting of my father William, mother Grace, and my brother Edward, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage when I was eighteen.
I attended Hamilton College for my undergraduate studies. There, I studied English literature. While studying in college, I began to read about the works of groundbreaking psychologists. While I thought that my life’s career would be in writing, I decided that I would instead devote my life’s work to the study of psychology.
I attended Harvard University where I earned my doctorate degree. While studying at Harvard, I conducted various psychological experiments, including one involving what many call the Skinner Box, humbly named after myself. This experiment involved operant conditioning with rats and other animals (see pg.251).
When I turned 32, I married Yvonne Blue. She supported me and my work, even presenting to me a new idea for an invention. This invention, entitled the Baby Tender, was a crib which would prevent many injuries and possible death. However, this creation caused controversy to fall on my name, as many believed that my new crib was a prison to children and would, in fact, cause instead of prevent injury.
After this, my research began to focus on operant conditioning instead of new creations. I originated the idea of reinforcement schedules; fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed-interval, and variable-interval (see pg. 253). These and other theories are still being used in psychology and studied by students like you to this day.
B.F. Skinner passed away on August 18, 1990. He taught classes at numerous universities across America, contributing to his work until the day he died.
Image Retrieved on 12 January 2014 from
http://drsophiayin.com/images/uploads/bfskinner.jpg
Hello, class. My name is B.F. Skinner. I was born on March 20, 1904 in a small railroad town in Pennsylvania. I had a small family, consisting of my father William, mother Grace, and my brother Edward, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage when I was eighteen.
I attended Hamilton College for my undergraduate studies. There, I studied English literature. While studying in college, I began to read about the works of groundbreaking psychologists. While I thought that my life’s career would be in writing, I decided that I would instead devote my life’s work to the study of psychology.
I attended Harvard University where I earned my doctorate degree. While studying at Harvard, I conducted various psychological experiments, including one involving what many call the Skinner Box, humbly named after myself. This experiment involved operant conditioning with rats and other animals (see pg.251).
Image Retrieved on 16 January 2014 from
http://www.skewsme.com/behavior/skinnerbox2.jpg
When I turned 32, I married Yvonne Blue. She supported me and my work, even presenting to me a new idea for an invention. This invention, entitled the Baby Tender, was a crib which would prevent many injuries and possible death. However, this creation caused controversy to fall on my name, as many believed that my new crib was a prison to children and would, in fact, cause instead of prevent injury.
Image Retrieved 16 January 2014 from
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/180fr3ojblnbfjpg/ku-medium.jpg
After this, my research began to focus on operant conditioning instead of new creations. I originated the idea of reinforcement schedules; fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed-interval, and variable-interval (see pg. 253). These and other theories are still being used in psychology and studied by students like you to this day.
Image Retrieved 20 January 2014 from
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Operant_conditioning_diagram.png/400px-Operant_conditioning_diagram.png
I finalized my life's work in my book, Verbal Behavior in which I analyzed stimulus-response behavior.
Image Retrieved 20 January 2014 from
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41rdkijgWQL.jpg
B.F. Skinner passed away on August 18, 1990. He taught classes at numerous universities across America, contributing to his work until the day he died.
Sources:
http://bfskinner.org/about-b-f-skinner-2/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/bio_skinner.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhskin.html
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/skinner.htm
http://www.apa.org/monitor/mar04/skinner.aspx
Woolfolk, Anita. "Behavioral Views of Learning." Educational Psychology, 1997. Reprint. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 250-251. Print
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3359847/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA (Operant Conditioning video)